My Foolish Heart
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day five hundred and forty: Shelby has come to the conclusion, as much as she ignored it, that she does feel for Emmett.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 25th cycle. Now cycle 26!_

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><p><strong>"My Foolish Heart"<br>Shelby & Beth, Emmett & Joanie Tepley, Emmett/Shelby  
>Shelby &amp; Beth series, sequel to "A Regular Nightingale" <strong>

Joanie had been fascinated by the amount of movies Shelby had on her living room shelves. She'd been even more surprised to see how many of them she hadn't seen, even though Shelby would get this sort of 'Oh this is such a great one' look on her face whenever Joanie would reveal that she hadn't seen it. One time, the girl had asked her neighbor if they could watch one of these, and Shelby had gladly accepted. This was how their tradition had started. Over the next few weeks, they would gather in her living room, with Beth, sometimes with Emmett, and always with popcorn, and they would watch one of the movies. Joanie had quickly become a fan of the 'Shelby movies', as she would refer to them. Joanie would arrive and ask if they could watch another one, Shelby would ask if she had done her homework, and only once she had confirmation, they began. Shelby would ask herself why a girl Joanie's age would rather spend time with a neighbor her father's age instead of being with friends, with people her age, but she didn't pry. The fact was she recognized a bit of this quality in how she was at that same age… Besides, Joanie always had that bit of 'wise beyond her years' quality about her.

That particular day, they had joined in their movie tradition after Emmett had called and said he wouldn't make it home for dinner. Shelby had assured him she'd look out for Joanie, get her dinner. They had just finished 'An American in Paris', right on time for Shelby to step in the kitchen to see about what she could prepare them to eat. From her vantage point, she could see Joanie, 'dancing' around the living room with Beth safely in her arms, while Panda the dog padded about, watching them, wagging her tail… Shelby had to smirk… The scene was so very domestic, and yet so very normal to her now. Whether she had sought it or not, their two families had become extremely joined at the hip. Lately, this had come to include something else, the one thing she had 'fought' most of all.

It should have come as no surprise to her that this… revelation… should come to her in the form of something straight out of a romantic comedy. Her whole history with Emmett so far did have that sort of feel about it, so this was no different.

It started about a week before. No matter how many times she tried to get them to be careful about it, the bag boys at the grocery store had overfilled one of her bags so that, when she picked it up from the trunk of her car, the bottom gave out, sending its contents tumbling and rolling away. It made enough of a sound to rouse her friendly neighborhood Tepley, and then there he was, picking up a can of soup that had rolled to a stop against the fence between their front yards.

"Timothy?" he guessed.

"Derek," she had to chuckle at how he tried to identify the bag boy who would not be getting a tip the next week.

"Right, I should have recognized his handy work," Emmett got to picking up other items before they could take to the streets. "Anything broken?"

"Could have been worse… At least the eggs are in another bag," she pointed out, and he laughed.

"Here, let me get that," he crouched down to grab something, just as she was reaching for it as well.

"No, it's alright, I got…" she stopped, drawing a breath in and, in that moment, getting a good lungful of the air around Emmett… Between the scent of him, and those big blue eyes, and… oh, that smile… It was a miracle something like this hadn't happened sooner. But there they stood… or sat, depending how you chose to interpret it… And she was looking into his eyes, and he was looking into her eyes… and she looked at his lips, and he looked at her lips… and she…

"Dad?" Joanie's voice cut in, almost simultaneously with Beth's cries; she had been asleep in her car seat… and now she was awake. There was a quick look back to one another, but it was clear the moment had been spoiled. Emmett stood up so Joanie could see him, and she held up the phone to show there was a call for him. Meanwhile, Shelby moved to look in on Beth. She didn't wait for Emmett. She took care of gathering up the spilled groceries and getting them into the house, along with the other bags and Beth. They didn't speak about the moment, or try to recreate it, or at least they hadn't… yet. Part of it may have been evading, but then there was also both of them being busy with their respective daughters.

Ever since that day though, Shelby had been unable to chase away the thought of all of it. Tried as she might, it was impossible to deny it now… 'it' being her feelings for Emmett. She'd never had anything like that before, with anyone. In a way, she was thankful for having wanted to be so cautious about getting involved with anyone, seeing as she had Beth now. It had forced her to take her time, really consider things, and not rush into them… she'd have a tendency to do that before. But there was so much at stake here. Never mind the part about the two of them, there was also Beth, and there was Joanie. They couldn't ignore that they mattered in this, and whatever they did, could and would affect them as well. So for so long she had not let herself think about him, but now… Now she knew; now she was scared; now she had something to lose.

"Shelby?" she was drawn out of her thoughts and saw Joanie had joined her in the kitchen, with Beth still in her arms, awake, and staring up at her as well.

"Yes?" Shelby replied, smiling.

"Can I ask you something?" she asked, and by the looks of it, she wasn't all that secure about having to bring it up. When Shelby gave her a nod, Joanie searched for her words. "How do you know… when a guy likes someone? Like… romantically?" Shelby leaned in, conspiratorially.

"I knew there was something going on," she told Joanie, referring to the boy Shelby had seen her talking to, when she'd picked her up from school that afternoon.

"Oh, no, I'm not talking about Alex," she shook her head, though there was the hint of a blush on her cheeks. Shelby gave a little 'sure?' look, and Joanie insisted.

"Okay, well… You just want to know in general, or is this an actual 'guy'?" she asked, still not completely believing this didn't have to do with this Alex boy.

"It's my dad," Joanie then revealed, which could have led to a bloody scene if Shelby hadn't just finished chopping the vegetables about twenty seconds before. "He's been acting weird lately."

"Weird how?" Shelby asked, and she couldn't believe how much she felt like a teenage girl in that moment, getting information about the boy she liked.

"Distracted, accident prone… I've seen it before, and it only stopped once he'd introduced me to Kelly. That's his ex-girlfriend." Shelby just quietly nodded, though she was extremely tuned in. "But this is like… Kelly times seven or eight… He almost burned the house down two nights ago!"

"Oh…" Shelby once again nodded, and then there was a crash, which made her jump. She'd just knocked the empty plates to the ground, and they'd shattered. Panda was barking like mad, and Beth started to cry. "Sorry, I… I didn't see those," she spoke just as much to herself as she spoke to Joanie.

"Oh!" Joanie gasped, as Shelby was crouching to pick up the pieces of plate. "Oh!" her outburst was louder now, and Shelby looked up at her. "It's you! It is, isn't it?" Joanie asked. Shelby didn't know what to say. Her lack of a response was good enough for the girl though… And judging by her smile, this was possibly the best news she'd heard in a good long while.

THE END

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><p><strong>AN: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
><strong>**In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
><strong>********always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!****** **


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